Mandenge bounces back as Sables coach

HARARE - Cyprian Mandenge has sensationally bounced back as the Sables head coach barely a month after he resigned as the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU soap opera continues.

The Daily News on Sunday has it on good authority that Mandenge’s return to the national 15s side will be confirmed this week after ZRU finalised their recruitment exercise.

Mandenge superintended over the Sables’ failed 2016 Africa Cup campaign that was blighted by little or no support from the union, who still demanded results given the circumstances.

But the former Harare Sports Club loose forward reiterated his desire to get another dance with the team saying “my time will come” and as fate would have it, he applied for the job again and outwitted his predecessor Brendan Dawson at the interviews held at the union’s offices on Friday evening.

“The country’s three rugby presidents conducted the interviews after a heated Emergency General Meeting that went on till late evening on Friday and from the look of it ZRU had already made a decision to re-appoint former coach Dawson,” a source confirmed to the Daily News on Sunday.

“There was consensus during the EGM that the technical team needed a bit of time because they were largely let down by ZRU and for them to demand results in a campaign they did virtually nothing was a bit unfair so as it stands Mandenge has already been advised that he was the successful candidate much to the chagrin of Dawson who had come wearing a national rugby union blazer.”

Efforts to get comment from ZRU or Mandenge regarding the latest developments proved fruitless by the time of going to press last night.

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